being estimated that nearly half a million of dollars would be required this year to complete those now in operation. The city paid about one-third of that amount, and raised the remainder by assessment upon the parties whose properties faced the streets which were altered. To show the extent of these improvements, we give the following lists of the streets in which they were now being executed. Those running north and south were as follows:

Battery street between Market and California-graded and planked.

Bush and Broadway,

66

66

Those running east and west were as follows:

Bush street, between Battery and Montgomery-graded and planked.

Thus the municipal authorities were taking precautions to remove, before the rainy season commenced, as many as possible of the obstacles, which, during the preceding winter, had rendered the streets nearly impassable.

NOVEMBER 18th.-This day an ordinance regarding the plankroad to the Mission Dolores, and which had previously been carried in the Board of Assistant Aldermen by a two-third vote, passed the Board of Aldermen by a constitutional majority, notwithstanding certain objections of the mayor and his consequent veto. The mission, which is situated two and a quarter miles from the plaza, was a place of common resort for the citizens, but the road to it being sandy, was difficult of travel, especially for vehicles. Owing to this cause, the cost of carriage was very great.

A load of hay, for instance, moved from the mission to the city, cost as much as fifteen or twenty dollars. The same way likewise led to San José, the capital of the State. It was therefore of considerable public importance that this road should be speedily improved. In the summer of this year, Colonel Charles L. Wilson conceived the plan of laying a plank-road from Kearny street to the mission, and presented a proposition to that effect to the Common Council. He offered to build the road, which, at that time, was considered a tremendous enterprise, in consequence of the high price of lumber and labor, on condition that he was allowed to collect certain rates of toll from those using it, and that he should have the exclusive right of the way for the term of ten years, at the expiring of which time the entire improvements were to revert to the city. An ordinance to grant Col. Wilson the privileges he asked, readily passed one of the boards of aldermen, but it was a long while before it obtained the concurrence of the other; and not even then until it was so modified that seven years only were allowed the projector for the use of the road, and but five months granted him for completion of the work. The importance of the undertaking was admitted on all sides; and the chief opposition to it was based upon the assumption that the city should rather make it at its own expense and reap the large profits which it was supposed would be the result. This, however, at that period, was impossible, the city being upwards of a million and a half of dollars in debt, and without the slightest prospect of being able for years to defray its unavoidable current ex

penses.

Having obtained the consent of the council, Col. Wilson next met with a formidable obstacle in rather an unexpected quarter. The mayor, after retaining the ordinance the full length of time allowed him, returned it unapproved. Notwithstanding, the council again adopted it with almost a unanimous vote. Still, the veto of the mayor affected the enterprise unfavorably to a considerable extent. Several parties, who had previously engaged to furnish funds for the work, now became alarmed as to the legality of the council's procedure, and withheld their promised aid. Col. Wilson was therefore left alone, to abandon altogether his weighty project, or to carry it on unassisted. He determined upon the lat

ter course, and although without any definite idea of the source from whence the means were to be obtained, commenced the work. Having proceeded far enough to give a guarantee for the completion of the project, he visited the capital, and obtained from the

Beach of Yerba Buena Cove, Winter of 1849-50, from Central Wharf to Happy Valley.

legislature an act confirming the ordinance of the city council. This renewed confidence in the measure. A half interest in the undertaking was immediately sold, and funds were thus obtained for carrying it on. Upon the very last day allowed under the ordinance for completion of the work, loaded wagons passed on the road from the mission to the town.

This plank-road has proved of the greatest service to San Francisco, and the property through which it passes has increased immensely in value for building purposes. Formerly that property was at times nearly inaccessible, and on all occasions was very difficult and troublesome to reach; while it is now of comparatively easy access. Since the formation of this plank-way, another road of the same kind has likewise been formed to the mission, upon similar terms granted by the council to the projectors; and both are believed to have proved highly lucrative schemes to their spirited proprietors.

NOVEMBER 27th.-Hon. Harden Bigelow, Mayor of Sacramento City, died this morning at the Union Hotel. He had taken an active part in suppressing the squatter riots at Sacramento, when he received a gun-shot wound which required the amputation of an arm. The operation was performed by Dr. John Hastings, by whose advice Mr. Bigelow was removed to San Francisco, believing the climate of that city would conduce toward effecting a more rapid recovery from the effects of the injury. While here he was attacked with cholera, which caused his death. His body was conveyed to the steamboat New World, to be taken to Sacramento for burial, by an escort composed of the California Guard, the mayor, members of the Common Council, heads of departments of the city, and the Society of California Pioneers. Mayor Geary delivered a very appropriate address on the occasion, in which the many excellent traits in the character of the deceased were depicted in a most affecting manner.

NOVEMBER 30th.-A thanksgiving-day for the admission of California into the Union.

DECEMBER 14th.-On the evening of this day a fire broke out in an iron building on Sacramento street, below Montgomery street. Several large stores and much valuable goods were destroyed. The total damage was estimated at about a million of dollars. Elsewhere such a fire might well be called a great one; but it was not so reckoned in the "Annals of San Francisco."

CHAPTER XIII.

1850.

Population in 1850.-City improvements.-Grading and planking streets.—Wharves, steamers, manufactures. Supply and demand for goods.-Mines yielding abundantly.-Expresses established.Moral progress.-Better state of things.-Cholera.-California admitted to the Union.-City Charter granted.-First Common Council -The gold medals for Aldermen.-Corruption of officials.Colton Grants.-Leidesdorff Estate.-City finances.-Outrages and fires.-The prisons and police. -Lynch Law agitated.

IN the course of the year 1850, upwards of thirty-six thousand persons arrived by sea in San Francisco. Of these fully one-half came direct from foreign ports, while many of those that crossed the Isthmus of Panama were likewise from foreign countries. By far the greater number of immigrants were adult males, as might have been anticipated. The most of these persons hastened at once to the mines, only staying a few days, or at most a week or two, in town, to recruit their strength and make preparation for the digger's toil. Perhaps two thousand females, many of whom were of base character and loose practices, were also added this year to the permanent population, if that can be called permanent which dwelt at least a twelvemonth in the city. The immigration across the plains and by land generally into the State was also, as in the preceding year, very large. Great numbers of all these sea and land immigrants, after they had been some months at the mines, and made perhaps a few thousand dollars, returned by way of San Francisco, to their former homes. Many others, altogether disappointed with or unfit for the country, went hastily back to the places from whence they had come. Thus vessels leaving the bay, and especially the steamers, were nearly as well filled with passengers as when they had first arrived. This constant migration to and from the State gave a wonderful animation to the streets